How is the hour-of-day pattern worked out?

Every hourly price is divided by the same item’s average over the 24 hours around it, so a price drifting up or down over the month does not make one end of the day look dear, and the 24 hours are then centred so an average hour reads 1.000. The best buy window is the cheapest run of three hours and the best sell window the dearest. Hours are UTC, with the hour on the wall in the zone most of the market’s players keep beside them.

How much history does the pattern need?

Each hour of the day needs a few days of scans behind it before its figure means anything. The confidence line reads the thinnest hour: settled from ten days of scans, provisional from three, too early under that, and no pattern at all while fewer than half the hours have been scanned. Scanning Normal Alliance US through the night fills the gaps.

Best hours to buy and sell

Pick a market and an item. Every hour of the day shows its typical price, lowest buyout and listings, and the page names the cheapest hours to buy, the dearest to sell, and what the gap is worth after the 5 percent cut.

On Normal Alliance US, Viking Sword is cheapest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (11:00 to 14:00 Pacific) and dearest from 09:00 to 12:00 UTC (01:00 to 04:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 95% after the 5 percent cut.

Current market: Normal Alliance US. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/normal/alliance/us

1MarketEach house keeps its own hours.2WindowDays of scans the hours are averaged over.3ItemKept while you switch market or window; type another below.

Item

Best hours to buy

19:00 to 22:00 UTC

11:00 to 14:00 Pacific · index 0.810 · typical 92s 58c

Best hours to sell

09:00 to 12:00 UTC

01:00 to 04:00 Pacific · index 1.213 · typical 1g 47s 61c

Spread after the 5% cut

+95%

buy at the cheap hours' lowest buyout, sell at the dear hours' typical price

Confidence

Too early

Too early to trust: the thinnest hour has 0 days of scans behind it over the last 28 days. Read the windows as a hint, not a rule.

Viking Swordby hour · Normal Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	1g 5s 33c	68s 33c	17	0.990	3
01:00	17:00	1g 13s 50c	77s 50c	11	0.963	2
02:00	18:00	98s 17c	67s 33c	20	1.030	3
03:00	19:00	88s 67c	66s 67c	20	0.938	3
04:00	20:00	78s	50s	32	0.976	2
05:00	21:00	1g 23s 67c	1g	21	1.057	3
06:00	22:00	1g 19s 63c	89s 75c	19	1.023	4
07:00	23:00	1g 27s 50c	1g 25s	10	0.899	2
08:00	00:00	70s	50s	16	0.983	1
09:00	01:00	1g 42s 84c	1g 25s	13	1.137	2
10:00	02:00	1g 50s	1g 25s	13	1.252	2
11:00	03:00	1g 50s	1g 25s	12	1.250	2
13:00	05:00	1g	50s	23	1.393	1
14:00	06:00	1g 6s 33c	70s	13	0.985	3
15:00	07:00	79s 50c	54s 50c	14	1.068	2
16:00	08:00	70s	59s	6	1.063	1
17:00	09:00	1g 7s 67c	93s 33c	9	1.018	3
18:00	10:00	95s	92s 33c	10	0.863	3
19:00	11:00	57s 75c	53s 50c	14	0.812	2
20:00	12:00	1g 12s 50c	87s 50c	15	0.832	2
21:00	13:00	1g 7s 50c	75s	16	0.786	2
22:00	14:00	92s 83c	68s 33c	13	0.848	3
23:00	15:00	57s	55s	18	0.834	1

Under 1.000 is a cheap hour to buy; over 1.000 a good hour to sell. Days counts how many days that hour was scanned in the window. The same figures as JSON: /v1/timing/forever.normal.alliance.us/3186 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	0.999	1.031	4
01:00	17:00	0.992	1.055	4
02:00	18:00	0.999	1.119	5
03:00	19:00	0.998	1.158	4
04:00	20:00	0.994	1.182	4
05:00	21:00	1.007	1.211	4
06:00	22:00	1.014	1.255	5
07:00	23:00	0.955	0.998	3
08:00	00:00	0.968	1.133	1
09:00	01:00	0.966	1.140	2
10:00	02:00	0.974	1.077	3
11:00	03:00	0.991	1.040	3
12:00	04:00	1.105	0.795	1
13:00	05:00	0.985	0.943	1
14:00	06:00	1.009	0.896	4
15:00	07:00	1.000	0.848	3
16:00	08:00	1.046	0.809	2
17:00	09:00	0.999	0.833	4
18:00	10:00	0.990	0.847	4
19:00	11:00	1.018	0.869	3
20:00	12:00	0.982	0.936	3
21:00	13:00	0.987	0.947	3
22:00	14:00	1.028	0.908	4
23:00	15:00	0.994	0.970	2

Each hour is indexed against the 24 hours around it, item by item across the market's largest positions, then centred so an average hour reads 1.000. For the day-of-week pattern, see market structure.

▸How this is worked out

Every hourly price is divided by the same item's average over the 24 hours around it, so a price drifting over the month does not make one end of the day look dear. The best buy window is the cheapest run of three hours and the best sell window the dearest; the spread buys at the cheap window's lowest buyout and sells at the dear window's typical price less the cut. Forever's history restarts at launch, so a live market's pattern never includes beta scans.

Common questions

What is the best time of day to buy and sell Viking Sword?: On Normal Alliance US, Viking Sword is cheapest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (11:00 to 14:00 Pacific) and dearest from 09:00 to 12:00 UTC (01:00 to 04:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 95% after the 5 percent cut.
How is the hour-of-day pattern worked out?: Every hourly price is divided by the same item’s average over the 24 hours around it, so a price drifting up or down over the month does not make one end of the day look dear, and the 24 hours are then centred so an average hour reads 1.000. The best buy window is the cheapest run of three hours and the best sell window the dearest. Hours are UTC, with the hour on the wall in the zone most of the market’s players keep beside them.
How much history does the pattern need?: Each hour of the day needs a few days of scans behind it before its figure means anything. The confidence line reads the thinnest hour: settled from ten days of scans, provisional from three, too early under that, and no pattern at all while fewer than half the hours have been scanned. Scanning Normal Alliance US through the night fills the gaps.